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April 03, 2014

URGENT ACTION- Jailed cleric seriously ill

Amnesty- The health of jailed Iranian cleric Sayed
Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi, a prisoner of conscience held in Tehran’s Evin
Prison, is worsening. He is in urgent need of medical treatment.

Sayed Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi, serving an
11-year prison sentence, suffers from a number of illnesses, including
diabetes, asthma, Parkinson’s disease, kidney and heart problems and severe
pain in his legs and waist. He has also reportedly gone partly blind in one of
his eyes. His health conditions have apparently worsened and he collapses
frequently. He has not been provided with the medical treatment he requires,
though prison doctors said in February 2014 that he needed to be hospitalized
outside the prison. During the eight years he has spent in prison, he has been
admitted to hospital three times.

He is now held in Evin Prison’s Ward for the
Clergy: he was imprisoned for advocating the separation of religion and state.
He has been under increased pressure to write and sign “confessions”. Prison
officials have told him at least once, in October 2013, that if he does not
write a letter recanting his beliefs, he will never be released.

Prison guards reportedly raided Sayed Hossein
Kazemeyni Boroujerdi’s cell on 15 March and destroyed his personal belongings.
This happened during visiting hours when he was with his family. His family
members have also been harassed, even during a prison visit, when they had to
undergo invasive body searches. In September 2013 Sayed Hossein Kazemeyni
Boroujerdi’s wife, Akram Vali Dousti, was summoned for questioning by the
Special Court for Clerics (SCC).